Wordsworth has told the story
in a copy of verses which shows, like so much more of his work,
how dreary a poetaster he could be.
XXXII
This epic-in-little, as tremendous an invention as exists in
verse, is from the _Minstrelsy_: 'as written down from tradition
by a lady' (C. Kirkpatrick Sharpe).
corbies = _crows_
fail-dyke = _wall of turf_
hause-bane = _breast-bone_
theek = _thatch_
XXXIII
Begun in 1755, and finished and printed (with _The Progress
of Poetry_) in 1757. 'Founded,' says the poet, 'on a tradition
current in Wales, that Edward the First, when he concluded the
conquest of that country, ordered all the bards that fell into
his hands to be put to death.' The 'agonising king' (line 56)
is Edward II.; the 'she-wolf of France' (57), Isabel his queen;
the 'scourge of heaven' (60), Edward III.; the 'sable warrior'
(67), Edward the Black Prince. Lines 75-82 commemorate the rise
and fall of Richard II.; lines 83-90, the Wars of the Roses, the
murders in the Tower, the 'faith' of Margaret of Anjou, the 'fame'
of Henry V., the 'holy head' of Henry VI. The 'bristled boar'
(93) is symbolical of Richard III.; 'half of thy heart' (99)
of Eleanor of Castile, 'who died a few years after the conquest
of Wales.' Line 110 celebrates the accession of the House of
Tudor in fulfilment of the prophecies of Merlin and Taliessin;
lines 115-20, Queen Elizabeth; lines 128-30, Shakespeare;
lines 131-32, Milton; and the 'distant warblings' of line 133,
'the succession of poets after Milton's time' (Gray).
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